Ahmed was born in Wandsworth, south London,[6] to Athar[7] and Lalita (née Chatterjee, born 1939, Lucknow)[8] Ahmed. Her mother is a TV presenter, actress, chef and writer on Indian cookery[9] who previously worked for the Hindi service of the BBC World Service in Bush House as well as All India Radio in India.[10] Samira attended Wimbledon High School, an independent day school for girls, and edited the school magazine.[11][12][13]
Ahmed read English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, which made her an honorary fellow in 2019.[14] While an undergraduate she edited Isis and the Union magazines, both Oxford University student publications,[15] and won the Philip Geddes Journalism Prize for her work on student newspapers.[16] After graduation she completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Newspaper Journalism at City University, London.[17] She recalls that Lucy Mathen, the first female Asian reporter on BBC television,[18] who worked on John Craven's Newsround, was an inspirational figure for her, as was broadcaster Shyama Perera,[17] who was working in Fleet Street at around the same time.[19]
Ahmed became a BBC news trainee in 1990. After two years on attachments, she began to work as a network radio reporter in 1992 on such programmes as Today. Fearful her short BBC contract would not be renewed after a mishap in a difficult situation,[20] Ahmed applied to, and was taken on by, BBC World for work as a presenter, which led to her becoming a reporter for Newsnight.[4][21] She was the BBC's Los Angeles correspondent during 1996–97 and filed reports on the O. J. Simpson civil trial.[4][22]
Ahmed briefly worked for Deutsche Welle in Berlin as an anchor and political correspondent, but then returned for a brief spell with BBC World and as a night shift presenter for BBC News 24 before taking maternity leave.[21]
Ahmed joined Channel 4 News in April 2000, and became a presenter in July 2002. In June 2011, she left Channel 4, and went freelance.[23]
From 2011 to 2013, she was a regular newspaper reviewer on Lorraine.[8] From June 2012 to November 2013, she presented the third and fourth series of Sunday Morning Live on BBC One.[15] In October 2012, Ahmed succeeded Ray Snoddy as presenter of Newswatch on the BBC News Channel.[27]
In June 2020, BBC Four aired Art of Persia, a three-part study presented by Ahmed of the history and culture of Iran.[30] A long‑time admirer of the Supermarionation works of Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson, Ahmed voiced a character in the similarly produced Nebula-75. The character, Juliette Destiny, was also modelled to resemble the journalist.[31] She reprised the role for a second episode in 2021.[32]
In November 2021, Ahmed interviewed Paul McCartney and poet Paul Muldoon about their book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present at the Royal Festival Hall. On 3 April 2023, Ahmed revealed her discovery of the earliest complete concert recording of the Beatles performing live in the UK on a special edition of Front Row on Radio 4.[33] The tape was made by 15-year-old student John Bloomfield at Stowe Boarding School on 4 April 1963.[34][35] She subsequently broadcast extracts on Front Row from a second Stowe tape made the same night over dinner by the tuck shop master, after his daughters contacted her about their recording.[36]
Ahmed has championed the cultural re-assessment of morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse in 2022 after studying 30 years of her campaign diaries,[37][38] and the comedy series The Goodies in 2024.[39]
Ahmed has been awarded honorary doctorates by City, University of London,[40] the University of East Anglia,[41] Kingston University,[42] and the University of Winchester.[43]
She is a trustee of the Centre for Women's Justice,[44] a member of the blue plaques panel for Historic England,[45] and sits on the advisory board for the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford.[46]
Equal pay tribunal
Ahmed filed legal proceedings against the BBC under the Equality Act 2010 in October 2019.[47] The London Central Employment Tribunal unanimously found in her favour on 10 January 2020.[48][49] On 24 February 2020, it was announced that a settlement had been reached with the BBC, but no figure for this was made public.[50] In a 2020 interview with The Observer she revealed that a 1975 episode of The Goodies about newsroom sexism inspired her during the tribunal process.[51] Her tribunal case was cited by the GDST as "leading the way on equal pay for women everywhere" when she was voted GDST Alumna of the Year 2021 by one of the largest votes ever.[52][53]
Personal life
Ahmed lives in London and has a son and a daughter.[54] From 2023 to 2024 she was a trustee of the humanist charity Humanists UK.[55][56]
Related Research Articles
Zoe Louise Ball is a British broadcaster and presenter. She was the first female host of the Radio 1 and Radio 2 breakfast shows for the BBC, and presented the children's show Live & Kicking, alongside Jamie Theakston from 1996 until 1999.
Sandra Birgitte Toksvig is a Danish-British broadcaster, comedian, presenter and writer on British radio, stage and television. She is also a political activist, having co-founded the Women's Equality Party in 2015. She has written plays, novels and books for children. In 1994, she came out as a lesbian.
Kirsty Jackson Young is a Scottish television and radio presenter.
Dame Joan Dawson Bakewell, Baroness Bakewell, is an English journalist, television presenter and Labour Party peer. Baroness Bakewell is president of Birkbeck, University of London; she is also an author and playwright, and has received a Humanist of the Year award for services to humanism.
Jeremy Vine is an English television and radio presenter and journalist. He is best known as the host of his BBC Radio 2 lunchtime programme which presents news, views, interviews with live guests, consumer issues and popular music.
Lauren Cecilia Fisher, known professionally as Lauren Laverne, is an English radio DJ, model, television presenter, author and singer. She was the lead singer and additional guitarist in the alternative rock band Kenickie.
Clare Victoria Balding is an English broadcast journalist and author. She currently presents for BBC Sport and Channel 4, and previously BT Sport, and formerly presented the programme Good Morning Sunday on BBC Radio 2. Balding was appointed as the 30th president of the Rugby Football League, serving a two-year term until December 2022.
Emily Maitlis is a British journalist and former newsreader for the BBC. She was the lead anchor of the BBC Two news and current affairs programme Newsnight until the end of 2021. She has since been a presenter of the daily podcast The News Agents on LBC Radio.
Wimbledon High School is a private girls' day school in Wimbledon, South West London. It is a Girls' Day School Trust school and is a member of the Girls' Schools Association.
Dame Jennifer Susan Murray, is an English journalist and broadcaster, best known for presenting BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour from 1987 to 2020.
Anita Rani Nazran, better known as Anita Rani, is a British radio and television presenter.
Carol Kirkwood is a Scottish weather presenter, trained by the Met Office, and employed by the BBC, on BBC Breakfast. In 2015, she participated in the 13th series of BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing, finishing in 10th place.
Clive Augustus Myrie is a British journalist, newsreader and presenter who works for the BBC. He is one of the BBC's chief news presenters and correspondents, as well as their election results presenter. Since August 2021 he has been the host of the long-running BBC quiz shows Mastermind and Celebrity Mastermind.
Joanna Marie Nussett Gosling is an English broadcaster, currently presenting a weekly programme on Classic FM.
Alice May Roberts is an English academic, TV presenter and author. Since 2012 she has been Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham. She was president of the charity Humanists UK between January 2019 and May 2022. She is now a vice-president of the organisation.
BBC Newswatch is a weekly BBC television programme presented by Samira Ahmed that provides a viewer and listener right-of-reply for BBC News. The programme was originally made in studio TC7 at BBC Television Centre, however in January 2013, the programme moved to New Broadcasting House in central London.
Sunday Morning Live is a religious and current affairs discussion programme. The first series aired on BBC One from July 2010 to November 2010 after the end of the third series of The Big Questions. It currently airs in blocks of episodes several times a year.
Olly Mann is a British podcaster, broadcaster and BBC presenter. He is best known as the presenter of the weekend evening show on LBC and for his work with longtime collaborator Helen Zaltzman with whom he presented the award-winning podcast Answer Me This!.
Joy Whitby is an English television executive, television, and radio producer who specialises in children's programmes and animated films.
Maya Indea Jama is a British television presenter and radio DJ. She co-presented BBC One's Peter Crouch: Save Our Summer alongside Peter Crouch and Alex Horne and was the presenter of the BBC Three competition Glow Up: Britain's Next Make-Up Star for the third and fourth series and ITV2’s dating series Love Island from series 9.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
